


Atris's Judgement

by cbrachyrhynchos



Category: Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Female Exile, F/F, Femslash, Short One Shot, warn: injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 21:25:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17475251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cbrachyrhynchos/pseuds/cbrachyrhynchos
Summary: Jedi Historian, Atris, accompanied by her First Handmaiden, is called by her former student to answer for her fall to the Dark Side. Story takes place shortly after the events of Knights of the Old Republic II.





	Atris's Judgement

**Author's Note:**

> Clearing out old work. Old Republic (MMO) continuity not addressed.

The First Handmaiden led former Jedi Master Atris to a training room in the Jedi temple where the Last Handmaiden stretched. Atris corrected herself. Jedi Knight Brianna waited for her, the Last claimed her name at least. But Brianna did not wear the robes of the new Jedi Order. She stretched in simple Echani undergarments. So it was to be an Echani ritual.

"Your new council can't decide on what is to be done with me," Atris said.

"No," Brianna said. "You and I will."

"You think you can judge me?"

"There must be a judgment." The Last stood in a deceptively relaxed guard position. "Please, begin."

Atris stripped off her robe. She trained all of the Handmaidens in the sparring ring. They trained Atris in Echani communication through combat. She had little to fear from the Last. The first forms communicated strength and speed, flexibility and reach. The next form demonstrated technical mastery. Next came strategy. Then came the real contest of will against will.

They circled each other, Brianna relaxed with a casual and guarded stance. Atris tried to center herself, pushed down the temptation to take the offensive.

There! Brianna took advantage of Atris's distraction to step in and feint with a beginner's training move. Atris blocked easily, and saw the followup kick. It brought Brianna close for a series of punches to the body. Atris took the blows, and landed one on Brianna's jaw.

They separated appraising each other. Brianna moved faster and stronger than Atris remembered. Or maybe Atris was just getting old, and tired. Brianna stepped in again, and didn't give Atris time to think. Brianna blended Echani forms with Jedi technique. Atris fell back on her Jedi training, but she couldn't see, couldn't feel with the anger inside her. Atris avoided a hold and received a light tap on the throat, a pointed reminder that Brianna could kill without a lightsaber.

Did The Last spar like this with The Exile? Did they go beyond the trials of master and student? Did sparring become love? Did they ...?

Atris winced as an open-palm strike landed against her jaw. Focus broken, Atris dodged, blocked. She twisted away from one lock and into another. Brianna communicated her will by tearing ligaments and breaking bones in Atris's wrist, a move that would force a surrender for any Echani.

"Enough!" Atris said. The Force exploded around Atris, throwing both First and Last off their feet. Benches on the edge of the practice room shattered against the walls. Atris called the lightsaber she claimed and raised it over the Last. "You children think you can judge me?"

"You gave me this same test. Sent my sisters against me and thought I'd kill them. Judge yourself."

Atris turned away from her former student. Once again, the dark side tingled, waiting to be fueled by envy, jealousy, pain at losing her place. She could crush her handmaiden for presuming to judge Atris.

Instead, Atris turned off the lightsaber and dropped it at Brianna's feet. "I surrender this to you. It was carried by The Exile. It is yours now if you wish it. It is not mine."

Atris looked to her robes, scattered by the wall. They didn't belong to her either, not anymore. "Does she love you?" Atris whispered. She repeated the question louder, "Does Surik love you?"

"She's gone ... Atris. She did not say to where."

"Then there really is nothing for me here."

\--

"You are troubled, mistress." The First Handmaiden had followed Atris back to their chambers. She applied the appropriate treatment to Atris's wrist, and laid out new clothes on the bed. The clothes had arrived days ago with a job offer to teach History. The position was outside of the temple but close enough to be watched. Not Jedi but not exile.

"I suppose I hoped for something different. To stand for judgment before this new Jedi council and to make some grand gesture like Meetra Surik did when we judged her. To have someone to blame."

"I saw you fight with my half-sister. You spoke clearly, and were understood by her. She, at least, will not forget."

"Perhaps. Perhaps she should forget. She is Jedi now. I am not." Atris looked down out the window to the nearest level of the streets of Corusant. "I trained you to be watchers of the Jedi. You and your sisters will stay here."

"My sisters will, I will not."

"No. First, must you betray me also?"

The First Handmaiden's response was quick and decisive. She pushed the injured hand gently out of the way. The Handmaiden's body stepped in close, legs balanced and prepared for the next move. A circular motion brought the Handmaiden's arm under Atris's good arm. Fingers reached up to press the base of Atris's skull, pulling her forward chest to chest. The Handmaiden's breath tickled the sweat on Atris's neck.

Atris closed her eyes and sighed. The Handmaiden had performed the move perfectly. She eased Atris into position with allowances for injured wrist and stiff muscles. The First had trained Atris in all of the escapes from this position. Two of them could kill The First. Atris had thought it a curiosity at the time The First had explained the courtship kata. Atris had not realized what The First really meant.

The First turned her own head a few degrees to the side, starting her own awkward escape and surrender, accepting rejection of the lover's gambit. Atris stopped this by reaching around The First's waist with her good arm. They shifted weight into a position that could only be balanced by two people cooperating, and came face to face.

"But, your oath. Our oath," Atris said.

"Words." The First shifted, taking most of Atris's weight but making herself vulnerable. Atris felt the next unfamiliar move, and tried to shift the weight back. She pulled too far, and almost pulled them both to the floor. The First twisted, guided Atris's moving leg with a quick nudge, and brought them to a new balanced position.

The First waited a moment, "Am I not clear? I have tried to show you this many times in the sparring ring. I wish to fill my vow by helping _you_ balance..." Atris reached up with both hands and silenced The First by kissing her on the lips. Unbalanced and tangled, they fell to the floor. "That's not the right form..."

"No, but it is human."

The first time was clumsy and awkward, like their first time on the sparring mat. Two people struggled to learn a new way to communicate, both without experience. After, Atris cradled her broken hand with her good one and looked out the window to the endless streets. Atris knew this was the way of the galaxy, and yet the Jedi had closed themselves off from it. "I don't remember your name," Atris said.

"You can call me Erisi, if you wish mistress."

"Don't call me that, Erisi. Just Atris. If you were force-sensitive that would be so tempting, mistress and apprentice. Maybe that's how I fell."

Erisi gripped Atris's hair from behind, and released just as quickly to rest a hand on Atris's shoulder. "I tried to kill my sister. When we fought, it was not only about your orders, it was also about how ... Brianna ... represented our father's fraility in loving a Jedi. I was convinced she would die in error. Brianna convinced us otherwise.

"If my sister had not erred in coming to love the Exile, and coming to love her human mother as well. Then maybe I'm not in error by loving you. We will argue, we will learn, and we will pick ourselves off the mat again. It is our way."

"And if I fall again?"

Erisi scoffed and reached around Atris's waist. Gently she pulled Atris into a mutual lock and balanced stance. "I showed you not an hour ago. If you stumble, I'll help you find our balance. If you fall, I'll fall with you. You Jedi talk about falling as if it's death. For Echani, a fall is just the space between challenges." Erisi changed the balance again, their legs interlocked. "I was taught that some of these katas are best performed fully nude. But this is new to me as well."

Atris responded with a shift in balance bringing them even closer, "Then we balance or fall together."


End file.
